parterre box

18 comments

• Avantialouie says:

  Why do I get this insistant feeling that NYCO will survive PRECISELY because Mortier left and would have bellied up bankruptcy had he stayed?

  on November 12, 2008 at 11:33 PM
• Gianni says:

  I completely agree.

  on November 13, 2008 at 12:38 AM
• Henry Holland says:

  Why do I get this insistant feeling that NYCO will survive PRECISELY because Mortier left and would have bellied up bankruptcy had he stayed?

  Yes, because what he was taking over was so wildly successful, they had a license to print money at the State Theater! [insert eye-rolling emoticons here] NYCO was in dire straits before he was announced, they’re in dire straits now. I know a lot of people are dancing on Mortier’s NYCO grave, which is bizarre since no one here actually claims to have liked the product put out in the post-Keene years all that much.

  Well, what now for NYCO? Are they going to go back to the awful Boheme/Carmen/Traviata with 3rd rate singers & conductors + musicals + one or two rarities done in two blocks thing? I feel sorry for whoever steps in, they’ll be in an utterly dire situation at a house that will STILL suck for opera.

  on November 13, 2008 at 1:55 AM
• DirkVA says:

  Those of you who are triumphing over having done your part to make an impressario of stature (even if its a kind of stature that you imagine you don’t approve of) unwelcome in a foundering company that rightly (if incompetently) sought to reach out beyond the mediocre usual will, I hope, be delighted with the poor schlump who will be foolish enough to take on the job that you have helped make even more undesirable than it was before.

  on November 13, 2008 at 2:13 AM
• T1 says:

  As far as the loss of Mortier—he certainly would have brought some recognition and changed the status quo at a very troubled company. NYCO has become nearly “irrelevant” on the NY scene in the past several years and needed an infusion of energy and style. Mortier would have brought this. Yes, I think this entire saga has been handled badly and I don’t know what the financial condition of the company would have been after 5 years of his direction. But I can guarantee you, that if he had come, they’d be talking about the productions and the change he brought to NYCO for a very long time. He was promised a certain budget, they didn’t give it to him, he left. I’m not sure why that should surprise too many people. We all knew things were going to have to change in order for him to actually take over. They didn’t and he didn’t.

  So who does everyone think might get the job? Who would be good for this position? It’s a position that many wouldn’t want to get any where near.

  on November 13, 2008 at 4:11 AM
• Buster says:

  Well, since he was recently mentioned elsewhere on this site, would be great for the job, ànd can do a Saint François, why not Pierre Audi?

  on November 13, 2008 at 5:18 AM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  The question to be answered is what kind of opera company should the nyco be? What role should it play in the life of nyc? Affordable opera in a down-to-earth environment? An avenue for opera in English? An avenue for young singers to get experience? An avenue for new or experimental works? An avenue for singers who for whatever reasons are not singing at the Met? Competition for the Met? A showplace for American composers? A showplace for operas outside the standard repertoire?

  Any one of those options, or a combination of two or so, could succeed as long as they are clear and consistent with what they intend to do. That would allow them to develop an identitiy and, most importantly, a following, a clearly defined target audience.

  Probably getting out of Lincoln Center would be a good first step.

  on November 13, 2008 at 8:28 AM
• wenarto says:

  set everything aside, I LOVE that poster of Siegfried!!!!! viva la Cieca

  on November 13, 2008 at 11:42 AM
• operboy says:

  I think it is rather cheeky to assert that Mortier did not come because the board of NYCO did not “give him” the money he wanted.

  We don’t have state run opera companies in this country. General directors have to raise the money. That’s part of the job. Sills did it. Keene did it. Kellogg did it- all with varying success.

  For Mortier to expect to simply be given the cash is either presumptous or naive on his part. I bet the former. And for the board president to promise what could not be given? That’s just plain bad management.

  A fish starts rotting from the head.

  on November 13, 2008 at 12:45 PM
• Regina delle fate says:

  Mortier at NYCO was always a pipe dream and one, concocted, as an attempt to unsettle Peter Gelb’s triumphalism across the Plaza. Well, Mortier is not the only artistic director of note in the world, and although it is true that his programming is nearly always interesting, his taste in theatre is much less reliable and a lot of what he likes is just pretentious stuff for a self-admiring elite. Certainly NYCO needs an artistic director AND a fund-raiser. I always think it is strange that both of these skills are required in one person in American opera companies – very few people have both. I suppose James Robinson could fulfil the artistic remit if he hadn’t taken on St Louis. What about a NYCO headed by David or Christopher Alden with a general director brought in to raise the cash? The Aldens would create a stir, attract good singers and do interesting rep, even if you won’t like all of their own productions….There must be other people in American opera with the necessary skills to do something different from the Met. I doubt if Audi would touch the NYCO with a bargepole – I can’t see him wanting to live all year round in New York, he is so quintessentially European (though Lebanese born)

  on November 13, 2008 at 1:22 PM